Douglas Feith: "I don’t believe anybody ever said Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11"

...Feith is (very technically) right. Or at least that was the case for a long time.

The * Administration itself scrupulously avoided directly claiming Saddam was responsible for 9/11. The mixed him together in every way short of that: repeatedly mentioning them in the same breath in speeches, claimed contacts between Al Queda operatives and Saddam's intelligence people, etc., but they made sure to preserve deniability on making the direct link.

That part was left to the conservative noise machine: Rush, Coulter, Hannity, etc. Commenters who could pretend they'd been given "the real deal" but could also be held at arms length by the Bushies and let them claim "No we never said that. Those people are not part of this administration."

Like many things in the * Administration, it was the ultimate manifestation of tactics and policies developed in the Reagan/Bush41 years

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/18/cheney.iraq.al.qaeda/index.html

<snip>

Members of 9/11 commission found "no credible evidence" that Iraq was involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks carried out by al Qaeda hijackers, and they concluded that there was "no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, the network's leader, according to details of its findings disclosed Wednesday at a public hearing.

However, the commission also found that bin Laden did "explore possible cooperation with Iraq."

Cheney told CNBC that cooperation included a brigadier general in the Iraqi intelligence service going to Sudan, where bin Laden was based prior to moving his operations to Afghanistan, to train al Qaeda members in bomb-making and document forgery.

Both Cheney and President Bush are strongly disputing suggestions that the commission's conclusion that there were no Iraqi fingerprints on the 9/11 attacks contradicts statements they made in the run-up to the Iraq war about links between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Bush, who has said himself that there is no evidence Iraq was involved in 9/11, sought to explain the distinction Thursday, saying that while the administration never "said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated" with Iraqi help, "we did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," the president said. (Full story)

In his CNBC interview, Cheney went a bit further. Asked if Iraq was involved in 9/11, he said, "We don't know."

"What the commission says is they can't find evidence of that," he said. "We had one report, which is a famous report on the Czech intelligence service, and we've never been able to confirm or to knock it down."

The public believed the connection.
"If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." - Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, NBC (9/14/2003)

We did have reporting that was public, that came out shortly after the 9/11 attack, provided by the Czech government, suggesting there had been a meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker, and a man named al-Ani (Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani), who was an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague, at the embassy there, in April of '01, prior to the 9/11 attacks. It has never been -- we've never been able to collect any more information on that. That was the one that possibly tied the two together to 9/11." - Transcript of Interview with Vice President Dick Cheney, Rocky Mountain News (1/9/2004)

...but they deliberately avoided outright accusations. They "just" very strongly implied, and left it to people to draw the conclusion (with plenty of conservative pundit help).

my money was paying for better liars than that.

and now this Feithfuck shows up too.

guess enough time has passed for most people to forget what traitorous liars they both are.

Sorry Doug, you can't re-write history.

Go back 3 spaces. Review Bush administration statements and memos again. Then get back to me.

Of "The stupidest fucking man on the planet".

Correct me if I'm wrong, but after initially stalling, didn't Saddam consent to having weapons inspectors come into Iraq? What "bluff" is Feith talking about? I seem to remember that Saddam said to send the inspectors in but the Bush administration claimed that this was some kind of trick or stalling move and began demanding that he just disarm. Bush even said that Saddam should just bring his weapons out to a "parking lot" and hand them over. All the while Saddam was saying that he had no weapons, which, as we know, turned out to be the case. This is not how people "bluff".

The same with Enron execs. It's the IKNOWI'MLYING way of crafting their answer.

and a few other shows, didn't he?

Well Douggie also said it... I mean he was like Assistant Secretary of Defense for POLICY.

Nothing to see here... move along...

Oy...

Wrong forum...

Lies, lies, and more lies. I'm so tired of lies. That would mean the BFEE had to believe that the UN inspectors were lying, too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1293

George W. Bush

2002

"The regime has longstanding and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and there are Al Qaida terrorists inside Iraq." - George W. Bush Delivers Weekly Radio Address, White House (9/28/2002) - BushOnIraq.com

"We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases." - President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat; Remarks by the President on Iraq, White House (10/7/2002) - Whitehouse.gov

"I think they're both equally important, and they're both dangerous. And as I said in my speech in Cincinnati, we will fight if need be the war on terror on two fronts. We've got plenty of capacity to do so. And I also mentioned the fact that there is a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The war on terror, Iraq is a part on the war on terror. And he must disarm." - President Condems Attack in Bali, White House (10/14/2002) - Whitehouse.gov

"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida. Imagine a terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground, so that a Saddam Hussein could use this shadowy group of people to attack his enemy and leave no fingerprint behind. He's a threat." - Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome, White House (11/4/2002) - Whitehouse.gov

"He's a threat because he is dealing with Al Qaida. In my Cincinnati speech I reminded the American people, a true threat facing our country is that an Al Qaida-type network trained and armed by Saddam could attack America and leave not one fingerprint." - President Outlines Priorities, White House (11/7/2002) - BushOnIraq.gov

"He's had contacts with Al Qaida. Imagine the scenario where an Al Qaida-type organization uses Iraq as an arsenal, a place to get weapons, a place to be trained to use the weapons. Saddam Hussein could use surrogates to come and attack people he hates." - Remarks by the President at Arkansas Welcome, White House (11/4/2002) - BushOnIraq.com

Sure, they never said "Saddam was responsible for 9/11".. They just falsely tied him to Al-Quada and insisted he was prepping another attack. By the time Fox news got done with it the sheep fell right in line.

Thank you so much

Of course in 2002 if you tried to tell anyone that BushCo was lying us into war you were called a Traitor or worse.

A new Newsweek poll out this weekend exposed "gaps" in America's knowledge of history and current events.

Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

Further, a majority of people couldn't identify Saudia Arabia as the country of origin of most of the 9/11 hijackers, even given the question in multiple choice format. 20% answered Iraq, while 14% believed the hijackers came from Iran.

A majority (52%) believe the US is losing the war against al Qaeda, however Newsweek disagrees. In the magazine's reporting of the poll, they made judgment that the US is in fact not "losing the fight against al-Qaeda or radical Islamic terrorism."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Poll_41_of_Americans_believe_Saddam_0624.html

said. Feith is an idiot.

the american way of lying.

then notice he turns the meaning into whether or not HE never believed the lie.

but he sort of also admits the lie.

an oil slick, that guy.

They are sick.

People will fill in the rest. Psych 101.

Most of advertising works on association. Gatorade didn't pay Michael Jordan 25 million dollars because he has the worlds best sales skills. They want to associate themselves with his greatness.

the world MIIGHT come for them some day?

n/t

There's certainly no evidence that a substantial percentage of the American people drew that conclusion (and continue to believe it) based on anything Feith or the administration he served had anything to do with that misperception. Heck, Doug never believed it, and he was in a position to know! And surely we all remember how persistent Mr. Feith was in correcting the record, always being invited on the swell talk shows to state, categorically and explicitly that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. We all remember that, right?

... and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack."

Dick Cheney, Dec 2001: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14824384/site/newsweek/print/1/displaymode/1098/ (in answer to "Do you still believe there's no evidence that Iraq was involved in September 11?") http://www.leadingtowar.com/PDFsources_claims_atta/2001_12_09_NBCmtp.pdf

Richard Perle, chairman of Defense Policy Board, PNAC, Dec 28th 2001, op-ed for the New York Times:



Kenneth Adelman, member, Defense Policy Board, PNAC, May 22, 2002 op-ed for Fox News:



Douglas Feith co-wrote "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" with Richard Perle in 1996, calling for the removal of Saddam.

Feith worked with Adelman to spread 'intelligence' about Iraq outside the government:



Feith fed the bogus Iraq-9/11 intelligence directly to Cheney:



This is such a blatant set of lies by Feith. It's inconceivable he didn't know his close associates were pushing the 'Saddam was part of 9/11' lie in public with the fake intelligence he passed on to them.

who was said to be the "Stupidest man on the planet."

We know that none of you psychopaths believed the sales pitch you were giving.

lying fucking liars